MAVA Foundation renews commitment to IUCN’s conservation efforts

Tue, 04 Dec 2012

The MAVA Foundation and IUCN today signed a three-year ‘framework’ agreement in support of IUCN’s 2013-2016 Programme as well as a five-year project agreement to help implement the Regional Partnership for Coastal and Marine Conservation (PRCM) in West Africa.

The PRCM represents a vast coalition of organisations from the local to the regional level, including civil society organisations and government agencies. The new phase of PRCM, co-funded by MAVA and the Embassy of the Netherlands in Dakar, will reinforce its role in facilitating the exchange of experience and information between partners, coordinating their actions and initiating advocacy work. “MAVA’s support is key to this process,” said Dr Aimé Nianogo, Regional Director for IUCN’s Programme in Central and West Africa.

“Given IUCN’s presence and membership in regions of interest to MAVA, we are pleased to continue our cooperation on the PRCM,” said Lynda Mansson, Director General of the MAVA Foundation. “IUCN plays a key role in this important partnership which has produced some impressive results over its previous two phases of implementation. This new phase builds on those successes and takes the partnership in a new and exciting direction. We look to IUCN’s steady hand to guide the initiative in this new phase.”

IUCN and the MAVA Foundation have collaborated since the Foundation’s establishment in 1994 by Dr Luc Hoffmann, a long-standing supporter of IUCN. Ongoing collaboration between the two organisations covers conservation efforts in West Africa, North Africa, the Mediterranean and the Balkans.

“IUCN is uniquely placed to play a key leadership role in the conservation movement and this renewed support is meant to enable them to play that role effectively,” Mansson added.

“The MAVA Foundation joined IUCN as the first non-government Framework Partner in 1997 and we are delighted to see this important partnership renewed,” said Julia Marton-Lefèvre, IUCN Director General. “MAVA continues to support both the IUCN Programme and many important products such as the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species, the Red List of Ecosystems, as well as our important work on World Heritage.”

MAVA’s support has also helped establish the IUCN Science Advisory Board which will integrate new areas of relevant science into the Union’s work and will be an important complement to the extensive biodiversity conservation expertise already embodied within the IUCN Commissions.

The signing ceremony took place between Lynda Mansson and Julia Marton-Lefèvre at the IUCN and MAVA Foundation-shared headquarters near Geneva.